A diaper will not prevent a male from getting to a female. Wearing a diaper outside is disgusting as most females urinate when they get outside, this means she will potty in the diaper.

Silent heats are very uncommon. And while there may not be blood, there will be a change in behavior of both the bitch and the dog. I would not worry about that at all. Dogs that do not live together should be supervised outside when they are together.

When the bitch is ready to be bred, the dog will be acting like a nutcase. He will not leave her nether-region alone and she will flag. It really doesn't look like play. Yes, they may cavort a little prior to standing, but it is really hard to miss when the dogs are actually taking care of business.

Call your breeder and have a discussion with him or her. They will give you advice as to when to neuter. The only AKC stuff is whether you have a limited registration or a full registration. If it is limited, puppies out of your dog cannot be registered. It does not require that you alter your dog.

If you actually signed a contract agreeing to spay/neuter, honor that. If it says by what age, honor that.

If you are going to neuter the puppy when it is older, why would you give the breeder more money for breeding rights? Actually that concept of paying more to have breeding rights is kind of silly to me. A good breeder should either put limited registration on all pups and remove it when the pup is determined to be breedworthy (maybe they could charge for it then)....or else know the person they are selling the pup too is not going to go out and let their dog breed. I have had lifelong intact males and never an "ooops" litter. So if you are going to neuter anyway but later, I would just tell the breeder [unless the contract is specific about timing - and - you don't want to alienate the breeder - I doubt anybody is going to court unless you keep the puppy intact *and* breed it]

CLosest I came was several months after one was neutered he tied with one of our females because we were not watching for that and thought he would loose the urge. Obviously he was shooting blanks so no pregnancy.

Hah.
We had a pup neutered at 4-5 mos., theoretically prepubescent, and when another of our dogs had her 1st heat, that particular dog tried numerous times to do the deed so to speak.
I was confused by that and wonder, if the testicles are the only think to produce testosterone, where he got the idea...I mean him of all the dogs, I could understand the others who were left intact until past puberty, and may have even previously bred.

Hah.
We had a pup neutered at 4-5 mos., theoretically prepubescent, and when another of our dogs had her 1st heat, that particular dog tried numerous times to do the deed so to speak.
I was confused by that and wonder, if the testicles are the only think to produce testosterone, where he got the idea...I mean him of all the dogs, I could understand the others who were left intact until past puberty, and may have even previously bred.

People tend to think that neutering a dog will remove all the hormones from the body. Some people WANT the hormones, others want to get rid of them, but the fact is, testicles are not the only place where testosterone is made. Even females have small amounts of testosterone in their bodies. I can't remember if the pituitary or the adrenals, but there are other glands that secrete sex hormones, sometimes in enough quantity to cause behaviors like breeding and tying! Why some neutered males do and others don't, is an interesting train of thought.

From observing my own altered dogs, when we have a female in heat, they'd all try to mate with her.

I wondered about the testosterone production. I personally don't care if my dogs have any, the less there is, the better

We castrate all manner of other animals we must live with and around, so to me, dogs are no exception.

But I find it really interesting when male dogs castrated as puppies exhibit male behaviors when their testes have been gone for years.

Adrenal glands do excrete some testosterone. Unless the dog is on testosterone-blocking pills you can't completely eliminate the effects of male hormones.

And I agree, the less the better. Most of the animals we have castrated don't actually live IN the house with us, too, so dogs ought to be even less of an exception. Most people don't want to deal with male pattern behaviors that tend not to be very compatible with the dog's role as a pet. Not knocking on the folks who do deal with them (heck I muscled my way through my dog's teenager years where his hormones were through the roof), or those for whom it doesn't bother them, just speaking in general.

I know I'm not going to deal with it ever again. It wasn't unmanageable or a massive migraine or anything, but then again, my dog has almost no drive, too, so that helps. Just not something I want to mess with again. No more male dogs for me past the age of 15 months, max.

Actually, when a bitch is in standing heat, another bitch will "try to do the deed." I have seen this happen, and I would have thought I had one conflicted pup if I hadn't heard other breeders say the same thing. I am not sure what that has to do with the original question though.

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